Corfu. Its time to go home

OK, so it was a simple straight forwards,out of the brochure, week away with the girls. Booked a year and a bit ago, a rare return to a previous holiday destination. It was billed as a last hurrah before Jen heads off into her own big bad/good world. San Stefanos is a smallish Corfu village which is largely uninhabited in the off season (a bit like many North Norfolk coastal villages) but comes alive when the sun shines. There's nothing too pretentious here. A great beach, warm seas, plenty of (samey) tavernas to eat at and we got lucky with some great apartments at Tsaros, which is where I sit poolside right now.
Weirdly the owners allocated us the exact same apartment as our previous trip in 2010.  Apartment 5. It's quiet, plenty big enough for us 4 and has wonderful sea views. It's a sweaty step up and down  the hill to the beach and taverns each day but always manageable, even late at night after a belly full of stiffadfo, cheap local wine and beer
As we chose to be here for just a week, we've not ventured too far from our base. There's been no need and even less desire from the girls. The whole resort seems quiet though the travel reps claim that all available holiday space is occupied. Even now, in +35° of morning sun, we are the only bodies round the pool.
We've made some cracking food choices this week, with the surprising stand out being the new beach side restaurant called Chili Wills. Service is desperately slow  but charming. The food and the sunsets make it all worthwhile. For no apparent reason they did an unannounced Mexican food evening last night which was v.good - even if we were looking for something a bit more traditional on our last night
The remainder of today looks a bit gruelling. Hours and hours of travelling while the temp nudges 40° .
I know tomorrow it will be just a bunch of memories, but they will be good memories.
We made a pact to return here again in another 5 years. As a holiday (for us), there's not much more you could want.
Pictures will be up on my Flickr site in a day or so.
Thanks Corfu, but its time to go home

Corfu July 2015

Another long pause between blog entries to the point where I can't even be bothered to look back at the date of my last post.
Suffice to say the year is whizzing past at an alarming pace. There's been lots to look forwards to after a bleak start, but many of these events have come and gone already!  To reflect on the highlights so far may be appropriate as one of the best parts of a holiday, time away,  is that you have to spend time with your thoughts and mull over what you have achieved while also start to plan for the future, whatever that may bring.
For Jenny to have finished schooling (ahead of Uni) makes me feel quite old but intensely proud. For sure, there's no one more hard working/deserving of achieving high grades and a wonderful 3 years in higher ed.
My personal achievements are far more modest though I still try and challenge my old self with bike rides and runs and swims. Cycling 50 miles in pouring rain around North West Norfolk with Jim was by far the toughest, closely followed by the 2 jaunts on the beach here in San Stefanos in the searing heat.  I'm kind of in training for a 100k bike ride in 3 weeks time followed by the Norwich 10k run later in August

One of the most anticipated outings this year was our trip to Latitude. Rosie and I on the family camp site and Jenny in with the noisy boys. A brilliant event with loads of things to see and do , mostly unexpected. It was way busier in the camping area than I imagined but it worked (not enough loos or showers though). Saw some great performances from AltJ Charlatans and Don Letts DJing. My 1st full on festival experience and I loved it. I can't comprehend the scale of Glastonbury being 10 times bigger than Latitude so I have no desire to want to go there. And there were virtually no flags in front of the main stages. And the food and drink in the arena was expensive. And the weather was wonderful

And now our most "looked forwards to" event, our family trip to Corfu.. If I remember, I'll post a detailed travelogue in due course. Howrever, I can report that it is fackin hot and lovely